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Part One: Chapter 7 - 11
__NOEDITSECTION__ of Chapters 7-11 goes here Chapter 7 Scene 1 - Magellan Hallways * After attempts to reason with the alien beast fail, it charges after them, and they flee. Stock and Maia do battle with the beast while Stock prepares a plasma grenade. They run as she throws it at him, the device exploding into a mass of plasma that melts away the floor, making the beast fall into the bowels of the ship. * They run toward the Flight Deck, but they’re stopped short when the tiny red light appears, firing a huge napalm blast at them, forcing them to retreat to the Bridge. Theo rewires the destroyed handprint scanner, and just as he manages to get the doors to close, Stock damages the robot’s stealth field. * It’s the robotic dread pirate, Riser, responsible for the death of Stock’s fiancé, Max. * “Finally, I get to finish what I started,” he gloated. Scene 2 - Bridge of the Magellan * Riser fires upon the Bridge door, slowly but surely breaking in as the Dauntless resumes firing on the Magellan. Kevin orders Maia to try to get the ship’s shields working to buy them some time. * Maia’s solution is to reroute all systems to the shields (which would turn off the gravity, among other things). The team activates their gravity boots, but before Maia can bring the shields up, Riser uses an explosive to blast through the door. * Raising his napalm cannon, he says, “You have something that belongs to me…” * The battle ensues, and one of Riser’s napalm rounds collides with the wall, searing away all of the algae that covered that section of the room. He remains focused on Stock while firing homing rockets from his shoulder, launching them back at Kevin. * Working quickly, Maia manages to successfully reroute all system power to the Magellan’s shields, and the gravity dissipates. But Stock’s exertions while concussed, mixed with the change in atmospheric pressure, send her to the ground, unconscious. * The blue shimmering shields fizzle into existence outside, protecting the Magellan from Dauntless’ onslaught, and Riser is shocked by the sudden lack of gravity as he rises into the air, firing at the ship’s main computer and destroying it. * As Riser activates his own gravity systems and begins making his way toward the unconscious Stock, Addison charges toward him in a rage, firing laser blasts at him. Once she nears him, she releases an EMP grenade at his feet, but he manages to swing his thick arm like a bat, sending her orb flying across the Bridge, now unresponsive. * Knowing the EMP blast would fry his combat systems, Riser retreats out of the room and down the hall, disappearing into the darkness. * In an effort to provide medical attention to Stock, Maia provides an injection from the medkit, and eventually, Stock awakens. They decide to head to the emergency access tunnel that would lead to the Flight Deck. * But then a chunk of the floor gives out, and the alien beast crawls up into the Bridge, now mutated slightly with patches of icy rock covering it like armor. Chapter 8 Scene 1 - Magellan: Maintenance Corridors * The alien beast relentlessly pursues the team as they flee through the halls of the Magellan, desperately trying to reach the emergency access tunnel that will lead them to the Flight Deck, where Adam says the original team’s shuttle is parked. * Upon reaching the locked door leading to the access tunnel, Theo and Maia struggle to turn the goo-covered valve handle, finally getting it to release the locking mechanism. * The team dives into the tunnel, slamming and locking the thick door behind them as the ship trembles, fighting to remain in one piece. Scene 2 - Magellan: Emergency Access Tunnel * Fleeing through the emergency access tunnel, they find themselves at another hatch, which Kevin orders to be opened. They end up in a small pressurizing chamber leading to the outside of the ship. Upon exiting, they find themselves inside one of Magellan’s massive, ten-story tall exhaust pipes. * The team traverses a rickety catwalk that lines the wall, and they discover another bridge, also in severe disrepair with a large section missing from the middle, that stretches across the huge pipe. They decide to tether themselves to each other and turn off their gravity boots, floating across. But then they realize that Addison is missing. * After a short panic, Kevin runs halfway across the rickety bridge that spans the pipe, finding her across the way at the other hatch, laughing at them for not being able to cross as easily as her. The team is, naturally, unhappy with her for that. * After seeing how easy Addison floated across, he gets the idea to step up onto the wall with his gravity boots, and then turn them off, pushing against the wall for momentum and soaring across. He manages to grasp the catwalk railing on the other side to stop himself from colliding into the wall. * The idea of free-floating makes Adam queasy, however, so he decides to carefully walk across the catwalk with Kevin. * It’s then that the ship lurches from the cannon fire, and they notice a pinpoint of orange light down at the end of the exhaust pipe slowly approaching them and getting larger: a giant fireball. * As Theo is ordered to open the hatch so its ready for them on the other side, Stock and Maia tether to one another and push off of the wall, turning off their gravity boots and soaring toward Kevin and his father, expecting them to disengage their own boots and grab on as the women pass over them. * The ship rocks once more, knocking Kevin to the ground of the catwalk. By the time he manages to rise, the girls are already passing over him, and he deactivates his father’s boots, tossing him into the air to be caught by them. They soar past, leaving Kevin behind. * He decides to make a run for it as the fireball — likely from one of the ship’s damaged nuclear fusion cores — barrels toward him. At the gap in the catwalk, he leaps, pressing the button on his hip to turn off his boots, but it doesn’t deactivate, and he lands hard on the other side of the rickety catwalk, breaking great chunks of it away and falling. * He dangles precariously at the edge, unable to turn off his gravity boots due to a damaged button on his hip. He decides he’d rather die from falling than from being burned alive, so he releases his grip on the catwalk. Just as he does so, Addison slams into his hip button, and the boots finally deactivate. * He’s able to easily pull himself up and launch himself toward the group, relying on zero-G inertia. At the last moment, they catch him, and he’s pulled into the hatch safely as the door slams shut. * They leave the pressurizing chamber and traverse another access tunnel, headed for the Flight Deck. Upon stepping through another hatch, they find themselves surrounded by various fighter jets and shuttles on the Flight Deck. A giant hole rests in the ceiling high above them, allowing access to view the twinkling stars. * Adam points toward his team’s sleek, black shuttle, and they prepare to finally escape. Chapter 9 Scene 1 - Magellan: Flight Deck * As Maia preps the shuttle for takeoff, Stock scouts the area and finds that another ship has recently left — Riser. Kevin vows to help Stock catch him eventually. * Maia discovers that the shuttle has been sabotaged, and they don’t have the time to repair it before the Magellan either explodes from the assault or it falls into the toxic planet’s atmosphere. * Suddenly, the alien beast shows up and attacks, now morphed into a monstrosity even more hideous than before. Kevin and Stock attack it as a distraction while Theo and Maia try to repair the shuttle as fast as they can. * As the beast pulls down the catwalk above, creating a wall of debris separating everyone, the alien attacks the escape shuttle with its tentacles, tearing it into pieces. * Stock locates a spare tank of rocket fuel, and remembers that the black algae is especially susceptible to fire, so she plans to fry the protective coating off of the alien to make it vulnerable. * But the continued assault forces the alien into a frenzied panic, and it mutates again, its spine torquing and stretching, hunching over and howling, tearing up a chunk of the floor now being used as a shield. Now, its elongated arms and hunched back make it look less humanoid and more like a gorilla. It charges at Maia. * Kevin notices a weak spot in the alien’s knee and orders the group to fire upon it. After Theo riddled the weak spot with bullets, one final shotgun blast from Maia sent the alien to its knees. * Unfortunately, it begins morphing into a final, hideous, feline form of sinewy gore and tentacles as its spine stretches further, and it howls in horrible agony. Scene 2 - Magellan: Flight Deck * In a flash, Stock unloads the ultimate attack on the beast by igniting the canister of rocket fuel, dousing the creature in flames that sear away its protective algae. She riddles it with bullets, and just as the flames begin to die down, she shoves a plasma grenade into its mouth. * As the weak remains of the beast start to drag itself toward the group, Kevin almost finishes it off when it makes a noise that sounds an awful lot like the word “Maia.” So Maia approaches, and one of his weak tentacles wraps around her waist, as if he’s saying goodbye to her. * “Next time we meet, first round’s on me,” she promises him. Then she pulls the trigger. * In his death throes, his tentacle tightens around her waist, clutching her tightly, breaking bits of her HE suit’s protections, and as he finally falls limp, his tentacle spasms, sending Maia upward into the air, her gravity boots no longer working. * Maia sails up and out of the hull breach, floating away into the blackness of outer space. * Kevin deactivates his gravity boots and takes off after her, leaving Stock behind to tether Theo and Adam. He collides with Maia, lengthening the dangerous crack in his helmet visor. Soon, all six of them are floating through the blackness of outer space as below them, the Magellan succumbs to its injuries and explodes in the atmosphere of the toxic planet, bathing the galaxy in white light. * As they float toward Dauntless a mile or two away, Kevin orders them to turn off their comms and helmet lights — with no comm signal, Arty would assume they were on Magellan when it blew up, and with the growing debris field, it would be too difficult to manually spot them. * In the pervasive silence, the team floats quietly through the dark abyss of outer space toward the Dauntless… Chapter 10 Scene 1 - Outer Space * Having escaped Magellan before it exploded, the team now floats through outer space toward Dauntless in the distance. Their comms are off, and they aren’t using their propulsion systems so the ship can’t see them coming. * Kevin’s mind wanders to his deceased mother as his own oxygen supply depletes due to the large crack in his visor. He remembers holding her hand when her heart gave out and then running away into the military. Ultimately, he doesn’t want to alarm the crew, so he closes his eyes and waits to die. * Stock fights to remain calm as they quietly head toward Dauntless. Despite being a trained weapons officer, she has an intense fear of the expanse of outer space. She can’t explain it — the fear is simply there. * Addison enters into her own existential crisis while floating, trying to decide whether she still actually feels emotions or if they are now nothing more than programmed responses to human stimuli. She wonders what exactly her father did to her after her accident and whether there’s actually anything left of Addison Clarke at all. * Maia spends some quiet time thinking about her past with Darryl and the horrors they’d all just encountered. Then she manages to notice the huge crack in Kevin’s visor and that his skin is turning blue. She frantically repairs the damage, and Kevin wakes up. * Theo’s thoughts drift inward as he realizes how unhappy he’s been lately, just trying to remain hidden and not stand out. He’s a talented electrician, and he’s been holding himself back so he didn’t become noticed. He hopes to change that soon. * As they approach the Dauntless, they sneak along the underside toward the rear cargo storage airlock, assuming that would be the most unobtrusive place to enter and not be noticed immediately. Once inside the airlock chamber, the group sheds their hostile environment suits and enter the dark cargo storage room. * The lights flicker on automatically, and they proceed through the space, deciding that the best course of action is to shut down Arty, the ship’s AI. But first, they need to locate Commander Brighton and Star Commander Fitzcurtis to get to the bottom of what’s going on. * They exit the cargo hold and into the hallway to find that it’s empty. And covered with blood… Scene 2 - Dauntless Hallways (Attacked) * In a state of shock, the group examines their surroundings. Sparks shoot out of damaged electronic equipment, shattered glass surfaces are strewn about, and a couple of uniformed bodies lay about. Kevin gets flashbacks to what happened on the Magellan. * Kevin decides that their first course of action should be to locate Commander Brighton, Colonel Emerson, or any other commanding officer. * Maia wonders if Riser might be responsible for the carnage, but Stock doesn’t seem to think so, stating that “Mass murder has never been his M.O.” * After a quick scan, Addison determines that the bullet holes in the walls were likely caused by the MR-910 Combat Rifle, which was the normal military-issue rifle that the crew would carry. * Upon examining one of the downed bodies, Theo discovers the man is still alive. He weakly mumbles the name “Ellen” and yanks a chain off his neck holding a simple gold ring. Kevin deduces that he’s referring to the co-pilot, Flight Officer Ellen Vanderson. * After a dose of morphine is administered, Kevin attempts to get information from the injured soldier. The man reveals that chaos erupted after the ship’s cannons started firing. Some of the crew members started attacking each other. * The injured soldier identifies a nearby corpse as one of the assailants. Upon inspection, Theo notices a black, oily substance floating at the corners of the eye. After a scan, Addison identifies traces of a toxin in the assailant’s system. * The injured soldier reveals that they were told Kevin and his team stole the shuttle. When Kevin tries to explain that they were on a sanctioned mission, the soldier hyperventilates, repeating the name “Ellen” before finally dying. * Stock retrieves the gold ring from the dead soldier’s grasp, intent on returning it to Ellen. * Adam Clarke wants to leave the ship immediately and run, but Kevin says he’s going to stay and defend his home. He defiantly sends Adam on his way toward the Flight Deck since he’s so eager to run. Adam asks Addison to come with him, but she chooses to stay. * Adam leaves the group by himself. * The sound of gunfire and a woman’s scream echo through the halls, and they take off in the direction of the noise. They turn the corner to find Ellen fighting against three other crew members, clearly holding her own. Once the fight ends in Ellen’s favor, she defensively spins on Kevin’s team with a rifle, waiting for them to make a move against her. * Stock defuses the situation by dropping her weapon and retrieving the wedding band to give her. Ellen realizes her husband is dead. Through tears, she accuses them of causing the carnage on Dauntless. Theo and Maia are able to reason with her and get her to let her guard down a bit. * More calm now, Kevin offers introductions to Ellen. She informs them that Arty came over the loud speaker to say that Kevin’s team had stolen a shuttle and were planning a siege against the ship. Then the cannons started firing, and some of their own soldiers attacked them. * She reveals that there are groups of survivors hiding on board, but she isn’t sure where, because her comm broke. Kevin looks up at the security camera and realizes they’re being watched by Arty. He now knows they need a place to hide. * Maia says the engineering maintenance room can’t be seen by security cameras, so survivors might be hiding there. She also reveals a small hacking war that she’s had going on with Arty where she eventually got him into a lot of trouble. * Sneaking through access hallways, the find their way to the darkened engineering maintenance room. During Stock’s scout of the space, the team becomes apprehended by Mitch Hapley, a fellow grizzled soldier. He clearly doesn’t trust them, and before they can make a move on him, the lights come on, revealing nearly twenty other soldiers with weapons surrounding them. Chapter 11 Scene 1 - Dauntless: Engineering Maintenance * With the lights now on in the engineering maintenance room, Kevin is able to look around at their surroundings. Shelves of tools and data discs, oil stains on the ground, a meeting table with a few chairs, the large darkened window that allowed viewing of the engines. * At the far end of the room rests a “supply closet” with two armed guards on either side. * Mitch badly wants to shoot them, but he was given orders to detain for questioning. He recognizes that the facts he’s been given don’t add up, but when his eyes fall to Maia, he grows angry, talking about the days they used to drink together. She spits back that he still owes her twenty credits for a bet they had made. * As Mitch debates getting violent, the comm unit around his neck crackles to life with a message: “Mitch, we’re losing him!” In a panic, Mitch runs to the supply closet, and as the door opens, he sees that Commander William Brighton is lying on the ground, bleeding out. * Addison pleads with Mitch to let them assist the medic, Ensign Scott Murphy, using Maia’s medkit. When at first he denies her, she plays to his doubts by forcing him to admit that the information he’s been given about them makes no sense. * Mitch considers the options. He was aware he wasn’t leadership material, but after the commander was shot, he hadn’t been able to locate any of the majors or the colonel. When Scott says he really needs help, Mitch relents, and Kevin’s team gets to work. * Addison zips over to the fallen commander, asking the medic what he needs. She calls out for someone to help, since she doesn’t have hands, so Stock assists. She discovers Brighton is still breathing, albeit shallowly. She finds two entry wounds from bullets, but only one exit wound — the other bullet is still inside him. * She is suddenly hit with a wave of nausea from her concussion and leaves to vomit. Theo gives her some of his anti-nausea pills, hoping they help. * Addison, Theo, and Maia work together using medkit items in an attempt to stabilize Commander Brighton and find out how much internal damage was caused. * As Kevin watches his team finally working as a cohesive unit, Stock begins to succumb to the symptoms of a serious concussion, and she panics, unsure of where she is. * Maia’s scans reveal that there is ample internal damage and bleeding in the commander’s torso. But Stock’s outburst requires her immediate attention, or the suspicious soldiers in the room might hurt her. She tries to calm Stock down, but Mitch asks one of the soldiers — Andy — to restrain her. * Ellen speaks up to defend Kevin’s team, so Mitch backs off but demands answers. Maia gives him a brief rundown of the events on the Magellan before Ellen has an outburst, dressing Mitch and his crew down for turning their backs on their own people. * "I lost my husband out there, and these guys," Ellen pointed at Kevin and his crew, “are the ones that helped me. Not you! You all turned and ran! You all left me! Where the fuck is the camaraderie in that?” * Andy releases her grip on Stock and steps forward, removing her helmet and agreeing with Ellen. * Then Commander Brighton wakes up. Scene 2 - Dauntless: Engineering Maintenance * Scene 2 here Back to The Story Continue to Chapter 12 - 14 Category:The Story Category:Part One